Throughout my high school and college journey, I was never really set on what I wanted to do for a living. I began majoring in mechanical engineering, and then switched to psychology, followed by accounting and finally business administration. Somewhere along the way, I took an Intro to Computer Science and C++ class and the idea of being able to make my own program really fascinated me. I continued down with my major at the time and graduating in business administration, however, throughout that program, I created projects on the side in C++.
After graduating, I seemed stuck with where I was at in my career. I didn’t feel like I was growing and really wasn’t enjoying what I was doing. One thing that I did enjoy was programming on the side. I finally got the bright idea, why not program for a living. So I began looking into online CS programs which landed me at Oregon State. The post-bacc CS program really appealed to me because I already had a bachelor’s degree and I could just jump right into what I enjoy doing.
Trying to find the right project was simple and yet a little challenging. My team and I agreed that we weren’t really looking to do a project that needed a lot of web development, as we wanted to focus on game development or systems. When looking what options best fit us, we looked at Sim Firefighter, Create a Board Game, and Run Space Invaders ROM to name a few. However, we each thought the Escape Room Challenge could be fun to work on. I brought up the idea that the clues that we could use for the user to escape the room, could be clues from throughout the OSU CS program. This really appealed to us and is something we can have a lot of fun with. We may also be able to get previous instructors involved as well.
There are a few things I hope to learn form this project. One is another project in working with a team. I think working in a team always has a ton of value, because each time and each team is different. In my short career as a software developer, I’ve learning how important it is to be able to work on a project with a team. Using things like task management software and Git are extremely useful tools and is something I want to continue to use with this project. I am also looking forward to learning some game development using a game engine like Unity. Although I have some computer graphics experience, I have worked on game development and this is something I am looking forward to. Once I graduate, there’s a possibility that I will need to work on some aerospace simulations, and I think just getting my feet wet in game development could help with this.
I am excited for the course and this project as I feel this will be something fun that I can add to my resume and have another group project under my belt. Stay tuned for the next steps!!
CATEGORIES: Uncategorized